Can i use Windows Search to find a number within Excel?

[TomCon]

If i use Widnows search of the CONTENTS of files (not file names), i find in
Excel, that for cells that contain text, they can be found. But, it does
not appear to me that numbers can be found. Of course the number as Excel
stores it may differ from how it is displayed. But, does anybody know if
this is possible?

For instance, i have a cell with the number 3,709,227 in it, as it appears
in Excel (as formatted). I tried typing the number both with and without
the commas, into WIndows search, but Windows search still does not find the
Excel file that contains that number.

So, any knowledge of how this could be done, if it is possible, would be
appreciated.

Thanks,
tom

 

[Jim Rech]

i have a cell with the number 3,709,227

As I understand it, Excel stores such numbers in 'IEEE 64 bit' format, not
as literal text. So it is probably not possible to find them with Windows
Search.

--
Jim
| If i use Widnows search of the CONTENTS of files (not file names), i find
in
| Excel, that for cells that contain text, they can be found. But, it does
| not appear to me that numbers can be found. Of course the number as Excel
| stores it may differ from how it is displayed. But, does anybody know if
| this is possible?
|
| For instance, i have a cell with the number 3,709,227 in it, as it appears
| in Excel (as formatted). I tried typing the number both with and without
| the commas, into WIndows search, but Windows search still does not find
the
| Excel file that contains that number.
|
| So, any knowledge of how this could be done, if it is possible, would be
| appreciated.
|
| Thanks,
| tom
|
|

 

[adam.vero]

If i use Widnows search of the CONTENTS of files (not file names), i find in
Excel, that for cells that contain text, they can be found. But, it does
not appear to me that numbers can be found. Of course the number as Excel
stores it may differ from how it is displayed. But, does anybody know if
this is possible?

As Jim says, this is probably not going to work with Excel 2003 or
earlier, but as far as I know in the new XML format for each worksheet
it stores formulae as well as the value last calculated in a normal
decimal representation (along with any errors due to inability to
convert exactly from a stored binary value). So you might be able to
search for Excel 2007 files by their content, assuming the search
function can get inside the compressed file container to the XML
itself.

 

[ilia]

In the settings dialog, you can select the file types and how they are
indexed. One of the options for Excel files is to index file content.

I would put an Excel file with a known value into a folder, and after
it has provably been indexed, see if the known value shows up on
search.